The fashion parade of Talonia says that 'big is beautiful'

In African wax print dresses and adjusted night clothes, “large size” models were paid on the track in Kisumu, Western Kenya, in a special event designed to celebrate the beauty of larger women.

Started nine years ago, the large -scale fashionable issue of Eastern Africa is, according to the founder Winnie Wenga Walcott, the only event of its kind in Kenya despite the fact that the region “has mostly really long -ruling women.”

“We have seen the media really trying to focus on a certain type of body of women,” he told AFP. “And in doing so, this has really affected his self -esteem.”

In front of more than 300 spectators shouting, a dozen amateur models walked and danced along the catwalk this weekend.

Unlike the traditional haute couture shows, there was a lot of smile.

Among them was Oprah Ohiambo, a Kenyan businesswoman, who wanted to show that “the big size can do what the little ones can do, so I feel happy.”

“There are those large women who hide because they fear that people are ashamed,” he said, he added that he hopes the program will reevaluate their self -image.

The singer and model Rosemary Odire, a scenic name Nyakusa Nyamama, talked about the teasing he has faced to act.

“I've encountered as many problems … People are like 'I Big Mama, what are you going to do there? You can't dance, get out of the stage',” he said.

“But I am here portraying … not only any beauty, not only beauty of large size, but the African beauty in me,” added Odire, who influenced the hips on the track in a leopard leather skirt.

Coming from all areas of Kenya's society, the models did not have this level of trust when they began training in March.

“They were very shy about the size of their body,” Walcott recalled, adding that there was now a “big difference.”

The fashion parade addresses health problems, but also focuses on “accepting women with curves” and “celebrating their appearance combining with fashion due to the difficulty they face to find clothes,” Walcott said.

Walcott created the program to honor his own mother, so he could “see herself as beautiful.”

“You see how big I am, I really hated my body, but she really encouraged me,” said Walcott's mother, Seline Aoko, speaking in the fruit post in Kisumu where she works.

“Big is beautiful!”